By Kunle KALEJAYE
HOUSTON – The growing popularity of local and international e-commerce website in Africa especially Nigeria has gradually gained wider acceptance even as more are being launched with international appeal likeAfricdeals.com.

Launched on the ‎May 1, 2014, founder ofAfricdeals.com Mr. Deji Adeoni said the ideal of an e-commerce site in Nigeria with international standard was conceptualize in 2009 to provide scamless, efficient and reliable online shopping for variety of items.
Speaking with newsmen at the just concluded Offshore Technology Conference, OTC, Adeoni saidAfricdeals.com sells consumer electronics like computers, cameras, toys, accessories, adults and kids clothing, designer handbags and whatever can be found on the website.

The United State of America base Nigerian from Ondo State with a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Master of Science degree from Oklahoma State University in the US‎ said “If you don’t find it on there you can place an order. The reason is because most merchandise that comes into Nigeria and most African countries lack quality and are mostly been sold for the price of the originals.‎

“The quality and standard is way different from what you get in the United States and a few other countries that have standard quality control measures in place.‎”

Born with desire for buying and selling, Adeoni explained that Africdeals.com was created so that African with a special focus on Nigerians can go, shop and have their items delivered within three weeks of purchase. ‎

“If Nigerians go to Amazon and other foreign e-commerce site to shop, they won’t ship it to Nigeria because they don’t trust us but as an indigenous person from Nigeria, I understand the market very well.

“The creation of Africdeal.com is to enable Nigerians go to our website, shop and purchase whatever they want to buy and we ship directly to them in Nigeria and everything is coming out of the United states. Our prices are competitive with what you get on Amazon and BestBuy and you will be rest assured that you getting the right quality,” he said.

Commenting on building customer’s confidence protection from online scam, Africdeals.com founder noted that‎ the quality of its merchandise will help build it customer confidence and base in Nigeria and other parts of Africa. ‎

“Our customers will preach us out to the general populace. Africdeals.com at this time is not in the market to compete with any of the existing e-commerce companies out there. Our online store platform will accept all different types of cards from African banks which Amazon and the likes will not accept. ‎

“We have measure in place to tackle scam. And any payment that is cannot be verified will be declined and the money will be returned. We are here to make the rest of the world know that Africa is the next economic power. People don’t have to waste money to travel abroad to shop anymore. Everything you need is right in your fingertips.

“If you are going to Africdeals.com website to buy anything, you buy with your name. You are not going to use John Joe or Andrew Whilliams to buy anything on the Web site to ship to Nigeria if that is done, it would be cancelled immediately but when you are coming with names like Uche and Kunle Salau I know already that the buyer is from Nigeria.

“We will deliver to the shipping address you specified at checkout. And if your shipping address cannot be located you will be contacted to pick up your items in a location closer to you. There will likely be additional charges for interstate items as we are working with local logistics company with track record.

Tackling payment issues

Reiterating further on payment, Adeoni said “our company is register with Nigeria Corporate Affairs Commission likewise the United State. We have bank accounts in Nigeria, and we are working with IBTC which has branches all over Africa. Our payments are processed online and you will automatically get an invoice in the email you registered with during checkout and a confirmation number.

“So if you make payment into that account and record confirms it, there is no cause for alarm. There is no reason for us to deny receiving any payment from our customers. We are a multinational company, and if there are any issues with payment you can talk to your bank and they will resolve it with our bank.

On safety, he said‎ “I have been on this project since 2009 and the reason we did not start back then was because of the security measures. Now CBN has put some security measures in place which is called ‘Third Party Verification’ so the verified by VISA and MasterCard secure code is one of the very strong tools that will help us and our customers. ‎

“Once you go on Africdeals.com to buy anything, you will have to add your items to cart and continue to checkout. You will be required to register which will allow us to provide you with coupons being our regular customer when applicable.

“Next is the payment page where you will be redirected to our secured payment gateway where you will need to select local card for those within Nigeria and international cards for those other countries within Africa. You will be required to provide a token to complete your checkout and your payment will be processed.

“Once your payment is confirmed your items will be shipped out and at every stage we will update you on the status of the order.
“Going around payment, I have tried different companies in the US and a lot of them denied payment simply because payment was coming from Africa and mainly 80 per cent sales from Nigeria.

“Am not going to mislead the US payments processors and tell them otherwise. I made them understand that my payments were going to be majorly from Nigeria and other African countries. Due to security concerns, lots of Nigeria customers are denied sales.

But as soon as we discovered the Security measures put in place by the Central Bank of Nigeria to prevent fraud on Nigerian cards, we went ahead to launch Africdeals.com Website‎.

“Now you can go online and make your payment and it is not going to be denied anywhere because anybody who steals your card to buy anything from Africdeals.com cannot have access to your Personal Token that secures your card. ‎

Payment defilement

“Once you order for something and you don’t receive it and there is no reason for the delay, ‎you can call to get a refund where you can cancel your order and your money will be refunded back to you. We are trying to operate as a Multinational company with an international standard within Nigeria.

Been Duped by customers

“Somebody can order something on the Internet like a laptop and they have a laptop at home that is bad but their aim is to exchange the parts of the bad one with the new one. Once that’s suspected we will not refund the payment. If you want to return anything to us, you will have to pay the return shipment back to the US. However, we guarantee everything we sell is in working order and the best quality out there you can find. Just to assure you, the items have been inspected for damages before the leave our warehouse.

‎”Once you cancel anything, if it is our own mistake, we will bear the shipping cost, if it is your own mistake or you decided to council for any reason then the buyer will ship it back to the US. ‎

Duration of expected goods

“We have compared different international companies and they have standard of up to 23 days but we are working to get your items to you within two weeks for Lagos and maximum of 3 weeks for other locations outside Lagos,” he said.